Alaias Bertrand lost 75 pounds in three years and has kept the weight off for seven years. After years of failing to hit her weight loss goal, she realized the key to success was in making the journey enjoyable.
As a high school freshman, Bertrand, now a 25-year-old content creator and marketer based in Florida, was told by a doctor that she qualified as obese. It came as a shock but prompted her to evaluate her daily habits and decide to lose weight.
Growing up, she played a lot of sports, but her diet was poor.
“I really didn’t have any form of diet or care. I would just eat whatever I wanted whenever I wanted,” Bertrand told Business Insider. “Super processed, high carbs and sodium, and most likely also sweets because I’m such a sweet tooth.”
Bertrand initially tried to lose weight through restrictive diets, including keto and intermittent fasting, but they made her preoccupied with what she was eating and didn’t work long-term.
“I feel like I’ve tried everything under the sun. Nothing was working,” she said.
Looking back at her habits, Bertrand said it was when she started prioritizing her health over her weight that she naturally started to lose weight.
Bertrand shared the three biggest lessons she learned from her weight loss journey.
1) You can’t shame yourself into losing weight
When Bertrand was limiting what she ate to lose weight, it was coming from a place of shame, she said. And it didn’t work.
She didn’t like the way her body looked, and she believed she needed to change it to be able to love and accept herself. “When I first started, I thought I honestly hated myself, which it breaks my heart to say, but I really did not have a lot of confidence,” she said.
Once she started making healthier lifestyle choices, such as eating more fresh produce, she naturally felt better in her body. This made her realize that she never disliked herself but rather the choices she was making.
Over time, her adjustments became less about needing to look a certain way and more about feeling a certain way. “I want to feel good in my body. I want to feel confident,” she said.
2) Find healthy habits you enjoy
Bertrand learned that finding healthy habits you enjoy is key to sustainable weight loss.
Losing weight healthily means leading a healthy lifestyle and being consistent, she said. Picking something for six months and then stopping isn’t going to work, which is why, she said, it helps to pick habits you would be happy to do every day.
“If you love walking and you’re like, I can walk every day for the rest of my life, then do that,” she said. “It is going to add so much value into your life, and it doesn’t feel like a strain.”
3) Find someone to hold you accountable
If you want to lose fat or start eating healthier, find someone to hold you accountable, she said. Friends or a community, as well as a coach or a trainer, are all good options.
Adding a social element to your fat loss journey will likely help you stick with it, Bertrand, who was part of her college track and field team, said.
In a longitudinal 2015 study published in the journal JAMA Internal Medicine that looked at 3,722 married or cohabitating couples’ behavior, each partner was much more likely to lose weight over a four-year period if the other was trying to, too.
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